Central Carbon group eyes firms to work on plan

Four sent portfolios. Experience in rural areas considered key.

June 05, 2008|By Andrew C. Martel Of The Morning Call

A group of Carbon County communities will ask four consulting firms for their ideas on how their neighborhoods and businesses will grow.

The Central Carbon County Comprehensive Plan Committee, made up of representatives from East Penn, Franklin and Mahoning townships and Weissport, decided Wednesday to ask the four planning firms for proposals for a comprehensive plan that will guide housing and business growth.

The committee also wants the consultant to help it get the state funding to draw up the document.

The committee read through portfolios of the interested companies and decided to ask all four for their recommendations and cost estimates.

After they review the proposals, the committee is likely to meet with representatives from two or three of the companies. Alan Beck, a representative from East Penn Township's Planning Commission, said he and his colleagues should also see if they get along with the consultants.

"You want comfort in communicating with them and flexibility on what we want," he said.

Committee members wondered whether their respective governments would approve working with some of the companies, noting that some had bad experiences working with some of the firms in the past.

Municipalities are required to have advisory comprehensive plans to guide their development and land use and update them every 10 years. Most communities have not changed their plans in decades. But some communities are forming joint partnerships, which have a better chance of receiving state funding.

The Central Carbon group hopes the state will fund 75 percent of their work, which could cost more than $50,000, through grants.

As they reviewed the portfolios, members looked for work experience that would match their communities' needs. Chairman Rod Mann, a Franklin supervisor, noted that one interested company, Stell Environmental Enterprises Inc., could work well in an area along the Appalachian Trail.

"They are pretty heavy in environmental projects and greenways, which are very much what we are," he said.

Companies must submit their proposals by July 10. The committee will go over the proposals on July 16, then meet company representatives in late July and August.

Beck said he was worried that some companies do not have enough people on staff with experience doing comprehensive plans.

But Mann said that the committee loses nothing by asking for more information.

"There's nothing to exclude them," he said. But "whether they come in costly, we'll find out," he said.